Voices at the Door
by 2whitie
Summary: Artemis wakes up in Fowl Manor, but it isn't the world he has come to know. Time Travel, post LG, no pairings.
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

 _If I had my time again_  
 _I would do it all the same_  
 _They say, but that's insane_  
 _Wouldn't you want to make a couple of changes? -Groundhog Day_

Artemis Fowl's feet were cold.

Not to say that this was a novel feeling—after all, Fowl Manor, the place he called home, was built with fending off invasions in mind, not cold drafts, and he had learned long ago that the rather mundane solution of wearing socks to bed was the best way to combat the problem. Had he been at Fowl Manor, he would have noted the problem, pulled a pair of heated socks out of his mahogany dresser, and crawled back under his covers.

No, he was at the manor, his brain noted dimly, as a pair of strong hands gently grabbed his side to help him up. He shouldn't be-he was supposed to be in Haven-his clone body had spent the last week fighting off an illness not seen in the human world for generations, and a few medical warlocks were spending the week trying to figure out a solution while he rested in a specially extended bed. The last thing he remembered was falling asleep in a specialized bed constructed in collaboration with Foaly that read and stored medical information of the person who slept in it.

The fog started lifting from around his brain as he took in his surroundings. Get the facts, he mentally reminded himself. Get the facts, then react. He was barefoot, wearing pajamas he hadn't worn in eons-he'd outgrown them after turning thirteen- in the hallway that lead to his mother's old bedroom. The world seemed a tad bigger, slightly off, and it was Butler that was preventing him from falling.

"Master Artemis? Are you alright?"

Just as he was starting to find his bearings, he got a clear look at Butler, and his legs nearly gave out beneath him. It was Butler, yes, but with the years shaved off. The stress of the past decade, of nearly dying, of loosing Artemis for three years, of watching the Atlantis Complex devour his young charge's mind, to loosing Artemis again, to all the death-defying adventures they'd had-magical and mundane-barely any of it was present. Nearly a decade was missing from his face.

Like always, his brain was faster than his body, and he had a strong feeling about what his reflection in the mirror would look like. He turned a few degrees, to look in the reflective surface of a nearby vase and saw a younger version of himself.

Maybe it was a sign that he was too used to the presence of magic in his life, but the feeling that began crawling up his throat wasn't panic or disbelief, but light confusion. He touched Butler's hand, to indicate that he was fine and took a few deep breaths. "I seem to have become a tad dizzy for a few seconds." He straightened and changed tactics. "This may seem like an off query, but in all your travels, did you ever work with someone named Captain Short?"

Butler's mouth twitched, as it always did when he mentally flipped though his list of military contacts. "I worked against a Commander Short in the past. Is that who you were referring to?"

Artemis shook his head. "No, thank you Butler. I'll be in my study for a while."

Butler tilted his head to indicate a room further down the dark hall. "What about your mother?"

His mother. How could he have forgotten? "It may be best to give her a bit of privacy for a bit."

A crashing sound came from the closed bedroom. Butler nodded, looked upon his young charge with the greatest amount of sympathy permitted by the young heir, then walked off to ask Juliet if she could check in on Mrs. Fowl.

Shakily, Artemis stumbled into his room. He had somehow time traveled, that much was obvious. But how? The mental shock of the timestream should have woken him up if he had been tossed in, and based on past experiences, it wasn't only a mental transfer, there should have been two of him. Could he be delirious? Maybe, but Butler had never informed him about the existence of a Commander Short-how would delusions give him new information?

Unfortunately, when magic was a regular part of one's life, the whole rule about Occam's Razor tended to pack its bags and whistle right out the front door.

Tentatively, he began to explore his room, looking for anything that might indicate discrepancies, anything to suggest that this was anything other than time travel. The fresco on the celling, completed for years, was missing, leaving a white, lonely space on the ceiling. A wall was all that was left of his yet-to-be-constructed special projects room, and his laptop was an ancient Mac, massive, and barely able to play video.

His bookshelf was covered in volumes he hadn't thought of in ages-science texts that had since been disproven, psychology books since updated, fiction long stolen by his brothers. He pulled out Goblet of Fire, as of, apparently right now, the latest Harry Potter book. It had been squished next to Redwall and Till We Have Faces, some of the few fictional titles that he allowed to stay on his shelf after his father's disappearance.

He walked over and felt the edges of the dark blue blanket on the edges of his bed. This particular blanket ad been retired for years now, following a misunderstanding with Beckett that had ended with the blanket irreparably damaged. A few days later, Beckett had been frogmarched into his room by Angeline Fowl, brandishing an obnoxious neon patchwork quilt that he had acquired in Dublin. Before he could comment on the monstrosity, his mother had given him her patented glare that guaranteed pain if he acted anything other than excited.

He had taken the blanket and pretended to examine it closely. "Thank you very much Beckett. What's...ahh...this has a lot of sequins on in."

Beckett had nodded proudly. "It's to attract the fairies. Daddy says that fairies love love love gold, and gold is shiny, and sequins are shiny, and I bet this one is going to get all the fairies in your room. And then you can ask them to fly!"

Artemis raised a single eyebrow. "I have heard the rumor that fairies tend to be rather fond of gold."

Holly has laughed for days when she flew to Fowl Manor and saw the quilt arranged into Artemis's customary nest of blankets that formed around him whenever he pulled an all-nighter researching.

As much as he despised the color choices made by the quilter, the navy blue throw blanket, more than anything tonight, filled him with an overwhelming sense of loss. Myles and Beckett didn't exist. They might never again.

Artemis Fowl allowed himself a single dry sob. Then, with the kind of control that had allowed him to live to see seventeen, he sat down in his office chair and mentally began forming a to-do list. First, he needed to know if this was a separate timeline, or if he was truly disrupting his own timeline. He needed to know dates and start compiling known information. He needed to find his father, cure his mother, and find out if anyone else came back with him.

He needed to find Holly.


	2. Chapter 2

**_AN 12/19-Not a new chapter, just a replacement. Hopefully, the format will be fine this time_**

 _I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?-Till We Have Faces_

Unlike Artemis, Holly Short did not have her day disrupted by a time-traveling consciousness. Holly Short had her sleep disrupted.

The elf had always been a fairly light sleeper. Unlike Artemis, who could _literally_ sleep through a tank driving through his house (Juliet had avoided being grounded for a year by pointing out that nothing had been ruined beyond repair), Holly had always been easy to wake up, exhaustion had no bearing on the depth of her sleep. While this trait was incredibly useful for police work, it was mildly irritating when one was friends with the diurnal Artemis Fowl. He tried to keep his responses limited to Haven's working hours, he really did, but sometimes an odd message would buzz through in the middle of the night, sending her scrabbling for her communicator, cursing the human's name.

Therefore, it's not much of a surprise that having her consciousness overwritten in the middle of the night caused her to bolt up in bed. Historically, the aforementioned event is one of the top three guaranteed ways to wake someone up. Only two events on history are known to be more reliable at jerking someone out of a good sleep: the dropping of atomic bombs, and a hapless college freshman's announcement that, no really, he knows how to make popcorn.

Unlike Artemis's house, Holly's living space remained virtually unchanged over the years. It was stationed away from the majority of the destruction caused by the Great Crash, and since she had long purged her home of anything Koboi-related, no explosions had occurred within. She always had a cooler perpetually filled with smoothies geared towards giving her a good workout, and baskets filled with nutri-bars. She didn't have many outfits outside of her LEP uniform, and she had never had the money to put towards acquiring any tech she didn't need. So, unlike the teenage genius, she didn't have a wealth of physical cues to indicate that she hadn't woken up from a very intense dream.

For a while, she had simply sat in her bed. Her hand didn't carry the ring-shaped scar from her time in the Arctic, she didn't carry the mark of any of the protection runes that had become necessary during the fight with the Berserkers. Finally, after doing a bit of cursory searching, she employed an old academy trick.

There wasn't exactly a science to it (in fact, most of the scientists at Haven's university would argue that there was no science to it _at all_ ) but frequent practitioners of magic had claimed for years that they could tell if the most recent bit of magic worked on you was self-inflicted or not. Apparently, if you mediated and used the part of your mind most open to magic to search for the newest bit of magic in the body, it would have a bit of a coppery feel to it if it came from someone else. This morning, she had healed a gash on her leg. By all accounts, she shouldn't get any kind of coppery taste.

She yanked the blanket off her bed, flicked in out onto the floor, crossed her legs, and began searching.

She used to be terrible at this. _Finding her core_ had always seemed like something best reserved for the Hey Hey Monks or hippie empaths, and she had never been able to fully immerse herself into the kind of state needed to perform the mental magics that were too subtle to be of any real practical use. That was, until she stumbled in on one of Artemis's sessions while he was being treated for Atlantis Complex.

Not that she didn't know of his frequent meditation schedule-He'd mentioned it a few times and she had seen him do it a few times. She hadn't ever had the time to really ask him about it before, and he'd complied with her questions right away. Butler had overheard his charge's clumsy attempts to explain and thankfully stepped in to help the situation.

Armed with Butler's tips and a partner who thoroughly enjoyed pretending that the act counted as exercise, she was soon able to do some of the more basic mental magics.

She employed those same strategies now, closed her eyes, willed all her stressors into colored balls, then sent them rolling around an imaginary track around her body. She mentally slowed down the marbled blue ball, the one she imagined to contain magic-related stresses, then pretend to poke it.

The ball blossomed into the shape of a lotus flower before dissipating into strands that flew into the rest of her mind. It didn't matter, she got the information she needed. Someone had performed a heavy-duty spell on her. And that spell gave off the distinct slippery feeling of the time stream.

Most important piece of information gathered. She checked the clock. At this point, no one would be awake, except for humans, and she had no reliable way to contact Artemis. Any real attempt to fix the problem would have to wait until morning.

Go to sleep, she told herself. You don't always get the chance to sleep when saving the world.

Two minutes later, she started dressing for the gym.

As a member of the LEP, she had a pass to the academy's specialized gym. It was open 24/7, sans fairy holidays, contained holographic programs to simulate real combat situations, and a few sprites who lead classes aimed at improving dexterity. Tonight, though, she didn't need anything fancy. She just needed numb her mind. She slipped on a black tank, black exercise pants, and grabbed a water bottle.

A few hours later, covered in sweat and panting, Captain Short was ready to start working on the problem. Her contacts list was quite different-it had fewer criminal contacts-and it was also fairly useless. Commander Root, even if the same thing had happened to him, would not have any up to date information. Her finger had hovered over Trouble's name for a moment, but she didn't think they were quite close enough at this point in the timeline for her to trust with such information if the same thing hadn't happened to him. Not that he wasn't trustworthy—Trouble had proved himself several times over, terrible romantic skills notwithstanding. But if he thought there was something seriously wrong with her, he would feel honor-bound to talk to an LEP psychologist, which could cause her to be taken off active duty in the best-case scenario, or worst case, practically hand over information about the future to Opal Koboi or Sool. Best to keep any information on a need-to-know basis.

Foaly, though…

The centaur was terrible at keeping secrets. The absolute worst. The best way to spread unofficial news around was to "whisper" it in front of one of his interns and wait an hour. If the same thing had happened to him, she doubted that he would be able to last a full week without slipping up. Knowing him, he would start looking for Caballine right away, just to get married to her earlier than he normally would have. Sap.

She would just have to stick to him like a stinkworm on dung.

….

As it turned out, for possibly the very first time in Artemis and Holly's respective lives, the situations around them turned out in their favor, no violent force necessary. Holly jogged back to her apartment, saw the time on the wall clock and muttered a stream of curses under her breath that made a swear toad sound downright angelic. Hurriedly, she pulled on the old-fashioned Recon uniform and buttoned it up to the top before grabbing her helmet. By the time she got to her desk, Trouble was already waiting at it for her.

Upon seeing her, he gave a short two-fingered wave and tilted his head in the direction of the Commander's office. "Ol' Beet wants to see you. Said we have a runner."

Captain Vein poked his head above his cubicle. "Hey, no offense Short, but aren't I supposed to be up next for a surface job?"

Trouble laughed at the prematurely grey-haired elf. "You were, until the Commander found out why you called in sick the other day."

Major Cardamon flew in, deftly landing on the spot where four cubicles came together. "Are we talking about Vein's need to play that human game Dungeons and Dragons? 'Cause if we're giving him crap for that, I want in."

Captain Vein rolled his pale green eyes. "You'd be in no matter what."

The conversation rattled around in Holly's head as she made her way to the Commander's office. Sure, she knew on an unconscious level, that Julius would be alive, but it hadn't hit home until now. Not until she stepped back into Police Plaza.

Every commander added a few touches to the Recon offices that reflected their personality. Predictably, Root had never bothered, the graveyard of dead coffee makers that covered the tables speaking for themselves.

 _Be well,_ he had said. Would say.

He was exactly as she remembered him. Reddened face, features partially obscured by a thick cloud of fungus smoke, well-built.

He glanced up at he through the smoke cloud and assumed that her watering eyes were a direct result of the smoke. "Captain Short. Grab your omnitool and head Foaly's direction. Seems that we have a bit of a situation in Hamburg."

…

A few thousand miles higher, Artemis Fowl zipped a suitcase shut.

Butler poked his head in the room. "Jokes about Dublin traffic were just that, Artemis. Jokes. We are not flying to the Zoo."

Artemis didn't bother getting up off the floor. Instead, he checked the time on the CNN broadcast flickering on the wall. "Change of plans Butler. There's about to be a bit of a situation in Northern Germany. Hamburg, to be precise."

Butler held in a sigh of relief. A mere change in location did not mean the lemur hunt was necessarily off. He knew better than to pry into the matter, though. "Anything special I need to bring?"

Artemis gave a small smirk. The first one in a long time, no matter how you looked at it. "I'm merely checking into the status of an old friend. Just a tranq gun and lockpicks should be fine." He looked up and held eye contact with Butler for a long minute. "And sunglasses."


	3. Chapter 3

_"And what could be more frightening than a child with total power? A spear and sword are terrible, God knows. That is why the knight who carries them is first taught pity, justice, mercy, and only last-force." -John Steinbeck_

Butler was puzzled by Artemis's behavior.

Now, this wasn't an unusual phenomenon. "Puzzling" was one of the nicer ways to describe the Irish prodigy, and the ten-year-old frequently went ahead and did whatever he wanted without explaining his actions to anyone. It was rather cute when he was a toddler, stumbling around the manor trying to accomplish tasks meant for those older and taller, but it was lately, it was a worrying trait. Artemis was going down a dark road fast, heedless of the consequences, and if Butler didn't know what he was up to, he couldn't do his job to satisfactory standards.

Everything had changed after that fateful day in the Bay of Kola. Mere childish carelessness had hardened into something resembling cruelty, mere devil's advocate remarks morphed into amorality. The young Fowl heir didn't get a charming coming of age story, he made the jump overnight. Taken all together, compared to the average, Artemis was odd.

However, Butler had been by Artemis's side growing up, and while he may not always be completely aware of what Artemis was doing, he knew Artemis. He knew that Artemis preferred Earl Grey to Lady Grey, that fantasy was his favorite genre of book, that music was his medicine after an irritating day, but a shower hot enough to fog the mirrors of an entire hallway was the cure for a stressful day. He knew his ticks, his habits, and how dense he liked his farls. He knew that Artemis liked the show as much as the planning, that Artemis didn't mean to be curt, it was just his way.

Based on the past day, everything taken together, compared to the average "Artemis" that Butler had come to know, Artemis was acting odd.

It all started in the morning. Normally, Butler made breakfast for himself, Juliet, Mrs. Fowl and Artemis startlingly early. After sending up a tray to Mrs. Fowl via Juliet, he left the spread on the table for everyone to pick at as they awoke and began their day.

Normally, Artemis came down to the table around nine. Having dropped out of school to homeschool himself after his father had disappeared and Mrs. Fowl had made it clear that she would not act in much of a parenting role in the foreseeable future, Artemis took advantage of his self-chosen schedule by sleeping in a few extra hours than his peers.

Today, though, Artemis was down before Butler had a chance to clean himself up from his morning workout. He had come into the dining room, planning to grab a small bowl of chopped fruit to take back to his room, when he noticed that his dark-haired charge was already at the table, peeking underneath one of the paper towels placed on top of the farls to keep the flies away.

"Good morning Artemis," the manservant, said, cautiously. "Early morning for you."

Artemis's eye did a slight twitch, which usually meant that he was mildly surprised. "Er, yes. It will be a long day, so I wanted to get a head start on it." He poured himself a steaming cup of Earl Grey into a mug from an intricately carved jug in the middle of the table, then stirred in a splash of milk, lightening the dark liquid into something resembled a cappuccino.

Butler's thick eyebrows furrowed. "You don't usually take milk in your tea." He craned his neck to take a better look at Artemis's plate. "Mushrooms? No eggs?"

Inwardly, Artemis cursed at himself. Of course Butler would notice changes in his schedule and diet. Active involvement in Fowl Industries, since he was believed to be nineteen in his proper time, had forced him to have an earlier rising time. Some of his tastes had naturally changed over the years, and his months underground had widened his palate in the ground-related food area. "Simply trying something new out. Expanding my horizons and such."

Juliet bounded in, Eiffel 65 blaring out of her headphones. Seeing Artemis, she pushed her headphones down to her neck and placed the Discman on the table. "Heyyy Arty. Rise and shine!" She elbowed him out of the way and made a grab for a pan au chocolat sitting in front of him. "Like the sweater. For my sanity, keep that instead of the suits. Makes you a bit less of a James Bond villain. Brings out your baby blues."

Artemis rolled his eyes. He was certain that regardless of the time period, every incarnation of himself was an avid user of that particular gesture. "Tell me Juliet, why do _you_ care so much about my, oh, how did you phrase it, my 'baby blues' hmm?"

Butler focused all his attention on the bottom of his mug.

Juliet grinned. "It's not for me. It's for the lady ghost on the third floor. You know, the only female not related to you besides me that you've had contact with for a month."

Artemis pretended to consider what she was saying, then shrugged. "Tragically for her, I'd have to turn her down. I prefer my dates to be born after the close of the eighteenth century. Besides, I don't think she's interested. She knows where I live and still hasn't made a move."

With that, he picked up his dark blue mug, sampled the contents with a small approving noise, gave a nod of thanks to Butler and left the room.

Juliet watched him go, then turned to her brother. "What was _that?"_

Butler was also staring at his charge make his way up the winding staircase. "That's the best mood I've seen him in, since…ever, I think."

Juliet nodded in agreement. "It was almost like he was a real human being."

"Juliet," Butler gently admonished. "He's going through a lot."

"Three punts he falls down the stairs."

"Juliet."

The rest of the day was much the same. Anytime Artemis was in the vicinity, something about him just seemed off. It was as if an excellent faker of physical feature and ticks was impersonating his charge but didn't bother to get every single personal detail right.

Butler just hoped that this wasn't a mood that only came with committing serious crimes. He had serious reservations about this lemur business, and didn't feel as if he had expressed it enough if Artemis was in this good of a mood.

Safely in his room, Artemis let out a long breath of air. Juliet was young. Butler had lost some age lines, yes, but his appearance hadn't changed much over the years. Juliet, though, from the start of his involvement with the fairies to the end, had gone from gangly preteen to professional wrestler to an official member of the Fowl household, not just one by proxy. Due to the jump in age Juliet had gained (from his perspective due to Hybras) and her increased geographical distance, Artemis had started to view her as a cousin, someone who he could go to for a (human) female's view on things.

Another thing lost. Another relationship dissolved as if it never existed.

Artemis Fowl gritted his teeth and began checking flights to Hamburg.

…

Holly had used the entire flight from Haven to Bavaria to consider her options. By the time she had gotten into Bavaria and adopted some human clothes in case her shield failed (standard protocol for all long term missions in densely populated cities) she still hadn't come up with anything. The trip from Neuschwanstein castle to Hamburg was in a ship set to autopilot, so she settled on listing known information.

1\. 1. The Hamburg Incident was caused by the theft of her omnitool by Mulch Diggums

2\. 2. The Hamburg Incident happened a day after the incident involving the Extinctionists in Morocco

3\. 3. As long as she stopped the runner from locking herself in a human car, she should be fine

The elf gritted her teeth. She was excellent when quick-thinking was needed and handled herself wonderfully in a jam but had little patience for long-term plans. That was Artemis's area.

 _It's not like he's dead. Not like last time._

But he was. Until she was proven otherwise, the Artemis Fowl she knew was gone, replaced by a cold ten year old who would let the world burn without hesitation if it meant saving his father. He might as well be dead, or mind-wiped.

Funnily enough, their last real conversation before they drifted into lighthearted banter while making the trip to Haven to meet with the medical warlocks dealt with the subject of Hamburg.

The months after the Crash had been rough on everyone, fairies and humans alike, and after a few months of repairing Haven, some of the historians put forth the idea of interviewing the Fowl twins about some of the Berserker's memories that they had retained. Hopefully, stated the professors, the young humans could give some insight into a time in fairy history where the few known facts had long morphed into legend.

The idea had taken a few months to get off the ground, and by the time an actual proposal had been pieced together, Artemis had come back from the dead. One of his first actions was to completely deny the proposal, letting the professors know, in a tone that had once made Opal reconsider her actions, that his siblings were off-limits. Eventually, a compromise was made after appealing to the young genius's love of scholarship: the twins would be kept out of it, but Artemis and Butler would give testimonies, and an LEP officer would be allowed access to the grounds to take pictures of possible rune formations on the grounds. Artemis agreed, as long as the LEP officer was Holly, and he was allowed to veto and questions he deemed irrelevant.

Holly had escorted the Haven University's Doctor of Human-Fairy relationships to the Manor, and while the two had chatted, she went down to the kitchen to wheedle a workout smoothie out of Butler. The man knew his way around a smoothie and had access to all sorts of fruits unavailable underground.

Artemis and the professor ended up getting on much better than expected ("Tell me, are you familiar with the poem Tam Lin?" "No, is it similar in structure to your Beowolf?"), and by the time the two were done exulting in the quest of nerdy pursuits, Holly had rearranged his neckties, been introduced to Zumba (Juliet), been fed twice (Butler), offered a dirty diaper (Beckett), offered a cup of hot water with coffee grounds floating on the top (Myles), and glitter bombed (Beckett and Myles). The professor left to catch the late shuttle to Haven, leaving Holly to complete her scans of the ground.

"Finished forming a bromance?" she had snarked in Artemis's direction.

He had merely smiled into his cup of tea. "I enjoy the odd epic poem. It's quite the novel experience to explain the relevance of famous ones to someone who had a deep understanding of literary symbolism but no awareness of the most famous ones."

Holly decided to change the subject as quick as possible. "I got you something for your birthday."

Artemis raised a single eyebrow. "Oh?"

Holly tossed the soft mass she had been hiding behind her back at him. Characteristically, he didn't catch it, and it smacked him in the face. He made a small noise of protest and he unfolded the shirt and got a good look at the logo. "Does Commander Kelp know you're giving this to me?"

Holly shook her head happily. "Thought you could use it for casual Sundays."

For Christmas, Artemis had asked for his gift to be that he only had to wear casual wear one day a week. He chose his day to be Sunday, since the first half of the day he was required to wear nice clothing for Mass.

Artemis grinned as he overturned the dark green pullover sweatshirt in his hands, admiring the golden LEP logo emblazoned across the front. "Mother will not be pleased," he said, referring to Angeline Fowl's mixed feelings regarding the fairies' involvement in Artemis's life. "I'll wear it to supper," he decided.

Holly grinned, throwing herself into the deep cushions decorating the couch. "You better take good care of that. They don't make that particular sweatshirt anymore. They stopped printing that design around the whole Hamburg thing."

Artemis zipped up the jacket over his pressed white button down. "What even happened with Hamburg? After so many veiled references, I feel compelled to ask."

"Eh, it wouldn't have been a big deal if my omnitool _hadn't been stolen._ A smuggler was trying to sell LEP tech to humans. Human law enforcement stepped in-they had been tracking the human end of the operation and handcuffed the since they had no idea what he was. I found him, and planned to get the handcuffs off, sneak him out, and mesmerize the only human that had seen him." She signed in frustration at the memory. "The omnitool wasn't there, and in the confusion and the perp escaped into a human car. It ended up causing a thirteen-car pileup, and entire squadron of police cars showing up, and a nearby news crew showed up the record the chaos."

Artemis winced. "If you could, would you undo it?"

Holly thought about it for a moment. "Nah. Hamburg sort of set off the chain of events that led me to being in Italy, which led to me being beneath the oak tree that night, which led to a partnership that stopped Opal Koboi. Overall, in terms of helping the fairy people, it's probably a good thing that Hamburg happened." She took a sip from Artemis's proffered tea cup. "That's not bad. I do wish though, that the news crew had never shown up."

Holly was shaken out of the memory by Foaly's whinny in her ear. "Your target just got his dumb self arrested by human authorities. "Just slip him out of those handcuffs and get him back to the shuttleport. Retrieval will deal with the cop. Think you have it Captain?"

Holly nodded, even though Foaly couldn't see her, and lifted a few feet into the air. "Affirmative. I'll buzz you if I run into anything."

Foaly nickered in response and switched to a more pressing line.

Holly switched on her shield and crouched behind on of the stalls in the market. There!

The cowed elf was sitting handcuffed behind one of the vehicles with a single officer guarding him uncertainly. A buzz came over the officer's radio, and Holly could hear a panicked voice erupt from it the minute the officer accepted the call.

"There's a truck full of human feces that just ran a red light and tipped over in a parade full of elementary kids. Nobody's hurt, thank goodness, but how did that even...no, the news crews have shown up...WHAT IS THAT?!"

Everything after that was unprintable.

A long black car drove up to the police barricade, and quick as a wink, a pale boy jumped out, tranquilized the shocked elf from a distance of a single foot (about the only distance he could shoot accurately from) and tossed him in the trunk.

Holly turned off her helmet. She'd say it was flares. "Well if it isn't Artemis Fowl the second."

Artemis grinned. "It's about time. I believe we have a lot to discuss."

 _AN-Thank you to everyone who is reviewing! It's so heartening to know people are reading it. Merry Christmas eve to all! A few notes: Artemis Fowl, the first book, based on the line "It was the dawn of the 21st century" takes place in 2001. Since this takes place around when TTP should have taken place, I am using the Irish form of money that was eventually replaced by the Euro. Also, based on a few comments made by Artemis throughout the series (Deciding not to argue with St. Peter, and having some belief in an afterlife, his comments about evolution) and the fact he's part of an old Irish family, I'm running with the headcanon that Artemis is probably Catholic. Since I'm a Protestant from America's heartland, feel free to correct me about anything I get wrong about Europe/Catholicism-2whitie_


	4. Chapter 4

_Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn't stop for anybody."_ _  
_ _―_ _Stephen Chbosky,_

Butler had put up with a lot since being informed that Artemis Fowl the Second had been born.

At first, it had seemed like he had lucked out. As a toddler, Artemis was quiet, didn't run off anywhere hard to follow, and preferred sitting in one place for hours while reading books cover to cover in a single sitting. He didn't object to anything Butler fed him and for the most part, most of his clothes remained intact.

As he got older, he became more like his father instead of his mother. His youthful innocence frosted over, and he willfully tossed his childhood into the trashcan, trading it in for conferences, consultations, and peer-reviewed papers.

Butler vowed to keep a professional distance from the situation. His was not Artemis's parent. That title belonged to Angeline and Artemis, and it was not his job to interfere. Artemis clearly adored his parents, never questioning the oddity of never being allowed in their room or only spending time with his father when it was scheduled. Who was he to interfere in a relationship that worked for all those involved?

Since the Bay, he no longer believed that he had gotten the easiest job of any Butler in decades. The early loss of both parents forced Butler to guard not only his charge's body, but his crumbling life. He was becoming more emotionally invested than his training recommended, and suddenly had to be involved in bigger and riskier schemes than ever before. He still believed he had lucked out-Artemis was going to change the world-he sensed it-and he was going to be there for it. He was just no longer under the delusion that Artemis would be an easy principle with easy to understand projects.

This though. This took the cake.

"Run this by me again. Slowly."

His charge shifted in his seat to hide how uncomfortable he was. "I cannot stress how important it is that we make it to the specified GPS coordinates in the next hour."

Butler made a show of checking the Bentley's newly installed GPS. "We'll be fine at the current speed with quite a bit of time to spare." He sent a pointed look at Holly in the backseat, mostly at her ears. "Try that explanation again in a way that makes even a bit of sense."

Artemis took a sip of Irish spring water to buy himself a few moments. When he and Butler had originally sought out the People, they had been like Hansel and Gretel, chasing after crumbs of information, slowly piecing together a path forward. By the time Artemis had begun baldly talking about fairies in his plans, Butler had seen enough that it didn't seem as odd as it maybe should have. By the time Ho Chi Minh had finally come around, fairies were an acceptable part of Butler's worldview, and the physical proof of a mythical race's existence just felt like the final puzzle piece to fall into place instead of a massive revelation.

Dropping everything on Butler at once, though, had to be done carefully.

Artemis put the water bottle in the car's cupholder and chose his words carefully. "Captain Holly Short here was given an assignment to catch an..ah..individual who had indicated that he intended to try to bargain with Germany's government for asylum. Had we not interfered, there would have been an incident of mass panic."

"So that stunt you pulled with the parade and the fireworks was intended to cause _less_ panic?"

Artemis smiled ever so slightly. "Comparatively, yes. I really just needed to get the reporters away from where Holly was. A nice and over the top incident worked nicely."

Butler shifted his dark eyes to Holly in the rearview mirror. "How did you know that something would go wrong hours ahead of time? Is it..did you…?" The tall bodyguard waved his fingers vaguely in Holly's direction.

She pursed her lips. "If you're asking if it was some sort of divination magic, then no. Nobody can tell the future. Magic doesn't work that way."

"Well, then how does it work?" asked Butler. He was trying to be patient, he really was.

Artemis suddenly had a horrible flash of intuition and cut Holly off before she could respond. "The typical fairy can speak any language, turn invisible for a limited time, put humans under a spell that can force them to do what the fairy wants them to, and heal illness."

Holly shot him a look and the young genius mouthed _later._

Butler pretended he didn't notice how Artemis cut the creature in the back of the car off or the implication that he would be kept out of future discussions. He'd deal with it die time. "Do you have a form of technology then, that tells the future."

Holly suddenly seemed very interested in the passing cars on the motorway. "Our tech's good, but not that good. Like I said, future-telling really isn't something that's possible. We, um. Me and Artemis I mean..," she trailed off, looking at the boy next to her.

Artemis was suddenly sick of the delay. As a younger boy, he kept anything but need to know information from Butler, but as he got older, he just kept Butler informed for the sake of his bodyguard's sanity. Surprising Butler wasn't as satisfying as it once was, and Artemis couldn't get as good advice from the man if only part of the facts were handed over. "We time-traveled. I woke up in the wrong time this morning."

It was a good thing that the light had turned red because despite his years of training, Butler may have slammed on the brakes anyway. " _What."_ And then, "This better not be a joke Artemis. So help me if it is…" he trailed off, knowing that Artemis could fill in the gap regarding his employment.

There was a knock on the window of the car. Butler glanced through, ready to ignore whomever it was, but after seeing a member of the local Bundespolizei and weighing the benefits of fleeing the local police and risk them finding the creature hog-tied in the trunk, he lowered the window.

"Ja Offizier," he asked, hoping that this wasn't a random search.

In the back, Holly shielded. Getting caught now would be both unfortunate and hard to explain to the Commander. Artemis, on the other hand, leaned forward, deciding to play his least favorite angle: dumb. "Hello Mr. Police," he said in English, thickening his brogue more that totally necessary. "What's wrong?"

The policeman took a step back and responded in good but halting English. "I'm sorry, but this car matches the description of one that was seen driving away from two different scenes that the police would like answers to."

Butler responded in English, hoping that the difficulty of suddenly switching languages would draw the policeman's attention away from picking up on cues he might otherwise. "I saw the blockade a few streets away from where we were driving, but we didn't see anything. We're just trying to get to the airport."

Technically, all of that was true, and the policeman picked up on that. He nodded. "Yes, yes. Normally, we would wait for a bit more information, but a truck carrying the city's waste tipped over in the street, flooding the area where a bunch of children were parading. We'd normally just classify it as an accident, but there were troublemakers who seemed like they were lying it wait for it to happen-lit up the entire area with fireworks, and then…" he suddenly remembered himself and have Butler a quick nod. "Sorry, it's procedure. Call this number if you remember anything."

The man walked away to his cruiser parked on the side of the road, leaving Butler to figure out how to thread himself back into traffic. He saw an opening in the flow of cars that simply jumped lanes to avoid his stopped car and slid in before turning his interrogators glare back to Artemis. "Where were we? Oh yes. Time travel. Keep going. I better like this explanation."

Artemis nodded, dipping back into his explanation. "The last thing I remember, I was ill and needed some specialized care. When I woke up, I had been temporally dislocated," Artemis mentally counted back his age and added three years on, "..ah..about ten years."

Holly shimmered into the visible spectrum without so much as a flicker of interest from Artemis, which spoke volumes to Butler, more than anything previously said. "Same here. I was a few miles away, so it wasn't a proximity thing. I can't think of how this could have happened."

Butler held up a hand, pausing any further explanation. "I can't believe I'm asking this, but shouldn't there be two of you if you time traveled? Like, and older and younger you?"

Artemis nodded. "There should be. As far as I've seen…"

"This has happened before?!"

"No. Not like this. I didn't simply take the place of my younger self before. It was also known to be the same timeline that only split later when a component was not returned. It's quite possible that yet another shadow universe has formed..."

Holly looked as if her soul was leaking out of her eyes as Artemis began lecturing on about temporal magic. After a few minutes, she gently tried to prod Artemis into a more relevant direction. "So, can we alter the events of this timeline without hurting anyone?"

Artemis pointed in the direction of the trunk. "Obviously we can. The question is, should we? If we keep as many events the same as possible, then it becomes more likely that the overall path of events will play out the same way, letting us prevent the massive tragedies."

Holly disagreed. "I took a vow to protect everyone. Not just the important people, or the people hurt by massive events."

Artemis tilted his head to acknowledge her point. "As much as I would like to discuss the ethics of time-travel-and I would, believe me, we need more time to record as much as we can remember to refer back to. Then, we need a series of objectives ranked by importance."

Holly nodded, falling into the familiar rhythm of a brainstorming session. "I'll go down to Haven's University, see what they have to say on the topic. I'll email you as much information as I can recover." She pulled a spare communicator out of the back of her pocket and pressed it into his hand. "Try to make it a less ugly ring this time."

Butler pulled over at an unobtrusive grassy hill covered by rocks. "This where you wanted?"

Holly nodded. "Thanks for the ride." She climbed out after punching Artemis in the arm. "See you later Mud Boys."

Artemis smiled. "Don't text me-I'll text you after I set up a secure line good enough to keep Foaly busy for a few decades."

Holly nodded, then dragged her still unconscious prisoner out of the trunk to a spot behind the grassy hill where they both vanished into the cold night air.

 **A/N Happy 2019 Y'all! Thank you all for the support!**


	5. Chapter 5

_"I'm an ivy twined so long against a tower of strange design that I cannot now assume any other shape."-Rachel Kadish_

Airplanes tended to be uncomfortable at the best of times, and as a frequent flyer, Artemis did his best to remedy the situation. No expense was spared in the making of the Fowl family jet; Every inch was stuffed with luxuries and outfitted with electronics that wouldn't be found in the average family home in the next few years. Luckily, the plane and everything in it had been paid for up front so it wasn't something that was immediately in danger of being repossessed by the bankers inching closer every minute.

Artemis had not missed this time in his life at all.

Had the timeline got according to plan, he would have been the recent owner of a fortune in diamonds to help sustain the appetites of everyone that his father had owed. While he didn't regret helping Holly or refusing to hand the lemur over to Kronski, he needed to fix the dangerously uneasy financial position the Fowls were in, and he needed to do it now. Artemis took a minute to mull over the problem, then pulled out his laptop. It would take a few hours, but he was accustomed to matching wits with the best firewalls on or under the world-Foaly's. Plus, he had a few years of experience on anyone in the human world, which, due to the leaps and bounds that technology has climbed in the past decade, he might as well have been light years ahead.

In short, skimming off a bit of Spiro's fortune without the man noticing was peanuts. Petty? Absolutely. Did he have any qualms whatsoever? Nope.

It was just too easy. Artemis allowed himself a small grin before catching Butler's eye and wiping any emotion from his visage. It just didn't do to make Butler any more suspicious than he already was. He had hoped that Butler had been convinced of his story's truth after the run-in with Holly in Hamburg, but, to quote Juliet, no dice. His bodyguard had spent most of the car ride to the airport quizzing Artemis about minutiae revolving around the Fowl Family, trivia only a genius could answer, and events that would happen in the next month that Butler could later check upon.

No, it didn't matter how furnished an airplane was if your sole companion seemed set on making it uncomfortable by looking at you oddly because you dumped earth-shattering revelations on their head.

For such a prominent city, Dublin had a fairly small airport. After landing the plane, neither Butler nor Artemis spoke as the man sitting behind the charmingly rustic desk gave their passports a cursory check and waved them through. The Troubles had only been over for a handful of years, and even though this was Southern Ireland, it was rare to have such ease getting through security.

Butler walked over the Bentley, which had been sitting in one of the long-term parking spots, did a quick security check then waved Artemis in. He pulled out, just as Artemis decided to speak up.

"We still need to swing by the zoo."

Butler gave his best disapproving look through the mirror. "If you're from the future _as you claim_ , then just pick all the right stocks. We don't need the monkey."

"Lemur," Artemis absently corrected. "And no, we won't be handing Jayjay-the lemur-over. But we do need to go there."

Butler said nothing in response, but his grip on the wheel tightened as he swerved into the road.

In the back, Artemis suppressed a small sigh. The Butler that he knew would have kept pressing, having been injured in enough of Artemis's schemes due to not having all the information to feel comfortable completely disregarding Artemis's preferences. Any time he tried to keep his cards close to his chest, Butler employed an annoying routine where he ticked various incidents off his fingers where bad things had happened because Artemis hadn't fessed up to what he was planning. Butler usually worked his way up to "Got yanked into a time/space hole in Spain," before Artemis was able to convince him to stop.

They pulled over a small distance from the zoo. Artemis took a minute to disable the cameras, then motioned Butler to jimmy the lock at one of the service entrances.

"I though you said we weren't handing over the lemur, Artemis," Butler grumbled in a low tone, after seeing the file Artemis was pulling up on his laptop.

"I said we weren't going to hand it over. I said nothing about not taking him," the young genius replied, apparently unruffled by the day's events.

Butler ducked beneath a low-hanging branch. "Same plan as discussed?"

Artemis nodded. "If he's still there."

Butler was having a hard time sticking to his training that emphasized the lack of his need to have an opinion in the principle's affairs. "Why would he not be?"

Artemis's lips tightened into a line. "There are a lot of parties interested in this particular lemur. We're not the only ones."

A sound caught Butler's ear. He raised the small binoculars that he kept in the Bentley, then tossed his charge over his shoulder without warning and jumped into the bushes surrounding the giraffe's enclosure.

Both remained still as stones as the night keeper passed by whistling a Cranberries' tune.

They waited a few minutes after they couldn't hear the keeper anymore, then exhaled in relief. They both crept out from behind the shrubbery and continued in silence to the cage.

As expected, Jayjay was curled up on a branch. Instead of a sweet-smelling compote, Artemis had resorted to holding up his laptop as it played a recording of silky sifaka's mating call. The lemur had woken up, excited, and between the two of them, they were able to extract the lemur the way that history had planned: without strange creatures from the future interfering.

After giving the sleeping gorilla a hard look, they quickly got back to the Bentley as quick as possible. By the time that the car pulled into the garage, Butler had to grudgingly give Artemis credit for keeping the lemur calm while they smuggled it out of the zoo. "Pick up lemur-whispering skills in the future, did you?"

Artemis shrugged as JayJay wrapped himself around his head. "He has a laid-back temperament. Maybe he senses that we know each other. Sort of."

"Spend a lot of quality time together in the future?"

"Only a few days, really. Mulch was the one he really liked."

Butler shook his head, vowing to wring as much information out of Artemis as possible over the next few days. He stepped aside, making sure that Artemis knew the password (His subconscious was still suspicious about the whole thing).

Jayjay was given a room to crawl around in, while Artemis dragged himself up to his room to come up with a more permanent solution to Jayjay's living predicament. He had never been much for any kind of physical work, but though Butler and Holly's tireless efforts, his older self had achieved the level of "pretty out of shape" instead of "horrendously out of shape". Unfortunately, his efforts were all for naught, as his body was now right back to where he had started. On top of it all, the country-jumping had taken a toll on his body, much more than it would have to his travel-accustomed older body.

Before he sat down in the office chair that he had pulled out of his father's office a few weeks/several years ago, he noticed a smear of dirt on his hand that he had gotten from his tumble through the zoo's exhibit. He sighed and walked over to the adjoining bathroom to clean up and change into something fresh.

He took a hot enough shower to steam all of the reflective surfaces up, partially because a few months of semi-permanent residence underground gave him a taste for showers hot enough to leave him red as a lobster (something that Holly, with her darker skin tones, never stopped laughing at him about) and partially because he wasn't quite comfortable with his appearance right now. He really shouldn't be upset about his appearance, he told himself. Millions were spent every year on products to make one look younger. People had once died in the search for a Fountain of Youth, and he had inadvertently stumbled on some variant of it. It was ridiculous to be getting worked up over his appearance-he really did have much other problems right now. And if he wanted to go down that road, hadn't he literally driven himself out of his mind with regret, wishing he could take back what his past self had done? His years of experience, foresight into future events, and knowledge of discoveries yet to be made paired with an incredibly youthful appearance was a deadly combination. Again, logically, he had no reason to be upset.

Yet, it was incredibly disconcerting to see things at a different angle than seven years and a growth spurt had accustomed him to. His reach was shorter, the angles on his face were softer, and his black hair had a fluffy aspect to it that he knew he would lose in the next year or so. Other than the height, his voice was the oddest change to process.

If there was one thing Artemis had learned over the years, it was that magic never came without catches.

He dried off, then slipped into a pair of striped silk pajamas that-in his time at least-were about to become the property of one Myles Fowl, who had been eyeing them ever since Angeline Fowl had gone through Artemis's storage. Refreshed, he sat down at his computer and put together a small presentation for the Captain and Butler.

…..

Butler sat down in one of the chairs in the conference room. The room was painted stark white-a complete contrast to the imposing stone and dark red decorations that permeated the rest of the manor-and contained a single long cold table with office chairs arranged around it. Cold and imposing, the room lacked the grandeur of the areas that the Fowls had long used to meet with crime syndicates, reasoning that legitimate businesses liked to meet with men who talked with green, not their family frills, and that criminal organizations needed to be reminded that the Fowls had been in Ireland long before them, and would be there long after. If Artemis wanted to meet in this room, then whatever he wanted to talk to Butler about was at least mostly legal.

Hopefully, it would be an explanation. That way, not only would he get the full explanation he wanted, but could hopefully be reassured that _time-traveling_ was highly unsual, and that he didn't need to start worrying about temporally-displaced criminal organizations coming after his charge. The normal kind were enough.

Speaking of the devil, Artemis swept in, dark hair plastered to his head. He somehow managed to not look absolutely ridiculous as a ten-year-old with soaking wet hair, a business-like gait, an expression that spoke to years of gaining control over one's facial features that no child should have, and a sleek laptop that looked as if it should belong to his father.

After sliding the laptop onto the table, Artemis tapped the device that the creature-the fairy- _Holly -_ had slipped his charge at the beginning of what was shaping up to be the longest day of his life, on the screen positioned on the wall at an angle where anyone sitting at the table could see it, causing the screen to flicker.

Butler raised an eyebrow at Artemis. Without looking, Artemis muttered something about advanced technology.

The screen flickered once more, then a clear picture of what resembled a living room jumped into view. Captain Short, the self-proclaimed fairy from before sat down in front of the camera. "Mud Boys," she said, hazel eyes sparkling.

Artemis gave a small smile. "Holly. Anything interesting on your end?"

The elf shook her head. "The Commander accepted the flare explanation for why my feed cut out. As you know, my perp was out of it the entire time, so he couldn't contradict me. Took you longer than I thought to secure a line from Foaly."

"I freshened up as well" Artemis said, pulling a few wet strands of hair as evidence. "I thought we," he made a circling gesture to encompass everyone, "might need a debriefing, of sorts."

" _Thank you."_

"Don't thank me yet Butler. This is going to get worse before it gets better. Now, Holly. How familiar are you with time-travel theory?"

The elf shrugged a bit. "Time magic in general is something restricted to the warlocks. Elven warlocks are skilled at stopping time, demon warlocks directly access the time stream, and sprite warlocks can tell where time magic has been performed. Pixies, goblins, dwarves, centaurs, and gnomes rarely have enough magic to qualify as a warlock, and no individual from any of those races who have qualified as a warlock have ever demonstrated talent with time magic.

Butler skipped past all the magic mumbo-jumbo to the part that seemed relevant. "How easy is it to qualify for warlock status? How many people could actually pull this off?"

Artemis hummed in assent.

Holly pursed her lips. "It's not easy. Firstly, you need to have the raw talent. The demon warlocks are the exception-with them, you're a warlock or you aren't. For the other two, you need to have a huge amount of natural magical ability, then you go to college for ten years to learn the basics of every branch of magical theory. If you aren't burnt out after that, you apprentice yourself to a master until they release you. There were about forty practicing warlocks before the Crash."

Butler was busy processing the concept of fairies going to college, so Artemis asked the obvious follow-up question. "How many of those would have the necessary skills to send someone's mind back in time?"

Holly held up her hands. "I've never even heard of anything like this before. Maybe all of them could do it, maybe one went all mad scientist in their free time."

Artemis sighed. "Very well. Keep your ear to the ground, but that line of questioning sounds like a dead end." He turned around his laptop to face Butler. "Captain, I'm sending this info you. Check your inbox."

Holly signed, then opened what looked like a fancy PowerPoint.

"Earlier tonight, Butler and I broke JayJay out of the Zoo."

Holly clapped.

"Thank you. However, if we were in the same timeline as before, our friend should not have been there. He should have either been in a shuttle or a plane to Morocco."

It took a few minutes, but Butler worked it out first. "There would have been some other version of you that took the lemur if all you did was go back in time."

"Yes. Exactly. Which leads to two possibilities: Either our presence creates a new reality, or we are in a split timeline."

Holly leaned back in her chair. "Yeah, you lost me there."

Artemis walked over to the white board attached to the wall opposite the screen, uncapped the marker waiting there, and drew a bold **A** and a bold **H.** "This is us. The original us, in our normal timeline." He wrote "Scenario One" on the board, then underlined it.

"The first possibility is that someone sent our minds back in time. Any event that occurred after the point that we woke up is a blank slate. Nothing is guaranteed, anything can happen." He scribbled out the major points to refer back to later, then doodled a small diagram. "Scenario two: A and H move back in time, causing a split." He drew a forked road. "In one path, this never happened. Time was not altered with. The other road represents the timeline that is altered by the choices we make, the things we choose to change."

Holly took a minute to process it. "Are there any other options?"

The skin around Artemis's mouth tightened. "There is a third option."

Nobody in the room interrupted. It was clear that this was the option that Artemis liked the least. And anything that could disturb Artemis Fowl wasn't to be trifled with.

"There is always the possibility we are feeding into a shadow universe. In this option, someone literally removed us from our home universe and pushed us into a new one. As far as our home timeline is concerned, we just up and disappeared. Before we arrived, this timeline was a timeline that never was, discarded because of a choice that was never made-read up on the multiverse in your free time. Anyway, the instant we arrived in it, it became a fully realized universe, effectively becoming a parallel reality in relation to our old timeline."

Butler felt a migraine building. "Artemis."

'Right. Sorry. If it makes anyone feel better, that's the least likely theory. The others have at least some grounding in actual magical theory."

Holly sputtered. "Then where did you even get that 'Option Three' crap?!"

Butler felt a sudden kinship with the elven captain, and suddenly saw how future versions of themselves had become friends.

"It was mentioned in the scrolls of the Hey-Ya monks."

"They Hey-Hey monks?"

"No, the ones with the temple that has the giant red bell at the top."

"Artemis, those guys routinely set fire to themselves as a way to give themselves motivation to finish tasks."

"I did say it was the least likely of the three. It was probably written by someone who just needed to turn in something before his hair started burning."

Butler raised a hand, intrigued despite himself. "Was the scroll charred?"

"A little, yes. Anyway.."

Holly leaned forward. "Is that why you came back that one day smelling like smoke?"

"I did not set myself on fire."

Butler shot up. "Where was I while you were setting yourself on fire?"

Holly shushed him. "At the manor, refilling on supplies. Juliet filled in."

Butler groaned.

"I did not set myself on fire, nor did anyone set me on fire."

Holly sensed the blood in the water and attacked. "Did accidentally catch yourself on fire sneaking out of a place only meant for the brotherhood of the Hey-Ya monks?"

Artemis became incredibly interested in his laptop. "The point remains that we need to decide what to do with Jayjay. As I recall, he is of immense value to one Opal Koboi."

Butler raised an eyebrow. "Opal Koboi?"

Holly shook her head. "You're going to wish you didn't ask."

 **AN-Hi! Again, thank you for all the feedback. College has started up again, so updates are going to come slower, so I'll try to make chapters a bit longer as a compromise. Have a great week everyone!-2whitie**


	6. Chapter 6

_"The only people who make any sense in the world are those who know that whatever happens to them has its roots in what they are."-Robert Davies_

Dewdrop transferred steaming multi-berry muffins from the baking sheet to the cooling rack, ignoring the frantic blue sparks healing the resulting burns, then set to work covering each treat with a clear sap-based glaze.

The art of preparing desserts was a fine line to walk when the recipients were the citizens of Haven: either they were too phobic of cold temperatures to purchase ice-cream or sneered at treats that didn't relieve the oppressing heat that came from living side by side with magma.

The younger generation had found a happy medium by leaning towards the cookies, muffins, and scones of the dessert world, partially as a rebellion against traditional fairy tastes, but mostly due to the recent influx of discoveries involving growing wheat underground. Her business had responded accordingly and pushed fruit-studded pastries to the front windows, along with back-to-nature style clothing that was also trending in Haven's younger demographic.

This batch, though, wasn't destined for her store's display. Baked with shame and iced with embarrassment, they were part of an apology basket for her third cousin, Holly.

She and her cousin had never been close, per say, but they had dropped the obligatory life updates that parents pried out of you after Holly joined Recon. It wasn't exactly a surprise-bot of the Shorts had been card-carrying members of the biggest law-enforcement agency underground, but Aunt Coral had worked with animals and her uncle had worked at a desk. Never let it be said that the Short family shied away from their sense of duty, but they couldn't exactly call themselves adventurers.

Cousin Holly, on the other hand, joined LEPRecon unit as soon as she was able, a controversial decision discussed in the Haven Dailies for weeks. Dewdrops store and clientele revolved keeping on top of trends and items of universal popularity with the Haven elite. If it had gotten out that she had a connection with the divisive Captain Short…Well, it just didn't bear thinking about.

She did feel a bit bad though, and with no reports of Holly messing up big-time, the debate regarding about her placement had died down. Last night, the guilt had finally eaten her into wakefulness, so she set about baking some muffins and placing them into a weaved basket. A sorry-I-blew-you-off gift. My-apologies-for-not-publicly-supporting-you-when-you-needed-it donation. Whatever you wanted to call it.

One light nap later, she threw on a cute cardigan decorated with tiny jeweled leaves, twisted her long auburn hair up into a fast yet elaborate knot, then set out for Police Plaza. The Stick was the fastest way to get to the LEP's headquarters, and by the time she had gotten there, most of the officers were either at their desks or out on their beat.

A bored sprite sitting at the front desk gave her both an appreciative look and a sign-in tablet. She scrawled her name in an illegible script, then asked the spite where the Captain's desks were.

The sprite gave a quick series of instructions, complete with meaningless hand gestures. In the end, he offered to draw her a map. Suspecting that said map would include a phone number, she declined and eventually managed to pick her way to where her cousin worked.

The captain's area, as it turned out, was a complete madhouse.

A few studious looking elves were desperately trying to fill out some official looking forms, but for the most part, it was a beehive of motion and activity: fetching tablets, wildly discussing maps, reviewing footage, or competing in a very serious tournament of trashketball with virtual paper. It took a few minutes, but she finally saw her cousin's shock of red hair amid a sea of green wings. Holly was laughing with a group of sprites, pantomiming some evidently entertaining conversation she'd had earlier that morning. Dewdrop took a few mincing steps forward, suddenly nervous, but before she could do anything, a door at the end of the room flew open and all noise in the room came to a screeching halt.

Standing in the doorway was a middle-aged elf with the ruddiest complexion she'd ever seen. Without missing a beat, he immediately started ripping into the Majors in the room for allowing the room to devolve into such chaos. Everyone else slowly slinked back to their stations, careful not to make eye contact or grin. It was clear, even to Dewdrop, who had been in the elf's presence for less than a minute, that his bark was worse than his bite.

Suddenly, he caught her eye, buzz cut quivering. "What do you need?!"

All eyes in the silent room turned to her. "I..umm..I have something for my cousin," she said lamely, brandishing her basket. "I'm just going to..ahh..leave this here."

She took a few more steps forward, saw Holly's shocked expression, then settled on simply setting the basket down on the table beside her. She made a small gesture that could have been interpreted by incredibly observant behavioralists as "goodbye", then all but fled the scene.

Chix ended up being the one to break the silence. He leaned over to give the basket a brief inspection, and after finding the contents to appear suitably delicious, he nodded approvingly. "Your cousin always bring you treats?"

Holly slowly nodded, still in shock. "No. That's the first time I've see her since..well..since I joined Recon."

Commander Root marched over to the basket and picked one of the muffins up, then studied it in the same manner that a jeweler would examine a particularly rare find. "Berries AND Nuts. Pricey."

He plopped the pastry on top of the tablet he was carrying and grabbed the cup of terrible coffee that Chix had poured for himself a few moments before. "As a reward for somehow being instrumental in bringing dessert to the office, Short, you're on deck for the next aboveground mission. Go see the centaur-he just called to say he had something."

Holly saluted, ignoring the complaints of the officers who hadn't been to the surface for at least a few moon cycles and practically skipped off to the Ops Booth.

Vein raised his hand. "If I bring in cookies, can I get the next surface assignment."

"I ate your cookies at the LEP BBQ last summer. If you bring those stones in, I will personally remove you from any surface missions for a year." He pointed at the team in the corner that had sort of been working on fixing a security breach. "Bring me up to speed."

Holly grinned once she exited the stuffy office and into the hallway that led to the Ops Booth. Finally. The universe had thrown her a bone.

She leaned forward into the Iris Scanner that protected the Ops Booth. It wouldn't let her in, per say, but it would alert Foaly that someone was trying to enter, prompting him to enter in a complicated password to open the door.

A small pang went through her heart after realizing that it was no longer necessary to make sure she was using the right eye for scans-both of her eyes were hazel again. With a sigh, she waited until the scanner beeped, then leaned back to wait.

It took a few moments for Foaly to disengage his many security measures, but the doors finally clicked open and Foaly yanked her in. "Do you think that fairy empathy can penetrate my hat?"

Holly pursed her lips, pretending to think. "Maybe. Are you thinking of carrots right now?"

Foaly's eyes widened.

"Joke. _Joke_ ," she assured him. "What do you have for me?"

The centaur flipped his man, showing exactly what he thought of people mocking his tin-foil hat ways. "It's not some exciting OK corral or anything, but pretty important. You know Spelltropy?"

Holly gave her centaur friend a dark look. Foaly, not used to the type of glare that had been sharpened and perfected on Artemis (who actually deserved such looks), quailed. Internally, Holly sighed and reminded herself that this wasn't the same person who could exchange witty banter while being tossed around the Atlantis Trench. They were two hostage situations, a murder, a revolution, and at least three world-ending disasters away from that.

This younger, softer version of her friend hadn't met Caballine, hadn't hired Mayne, didn't spend his off hours breaking into the Fowl Manor security system just to piss Artemis off.

For the first time since this entire mess had started, Holly felt wretched for someone that wasn't her or Artemis.

He looked at her suspiciously. "What?"

She shook her head. "Nothing. It's nothing. Anyway, Spelltropy. Didn't we get rid of that?"

Foaly nodded his long face, slowly turning back to his computers. "Yes, but our only source of antidote is extinct. Koboi-you know, Koboi Industries Koboi?- tried to attract more of the source-it was the brain fluid of a lemur by the way-but the entire population was wiped out by wildfire."

Foaly took the disturbed look on Holly's face at the mention of Koboi's name and reasoned that it had to do with the extinction of a species. "Yeah, I know. Much as I hate to admit it, this one's on us. Until now."

He slid an image from his laptop to a massive screen taking up half of one of the walls. "I have no idea how we missed it, but there is one left."

Holly pretended surprise. "Really? It survived a flash fire?"

"Nope." The Centaur grinned, excited. "The Irish saved our bacon on this one, to use a human phrase. Some foundation funded by a rich Dublin family has been paying for its protection. This little guy was eating nuts in a zoo while all of its buddies were on the island."

Genuinely confused, Holly's eyebrows bunched up. "It was in a public zoo, and we didn't know about it."

Foaly mumbled something darkly.

"What was that?"

"There was a mistake, okay? Someone placed the file on it in the trashcan file."

Holly nodded. "Is this a retrieval mission for the lemur or his brain fluid?"

Foaly passed her a syringe. "The brain fluid. It's kinda high profile-people would notice if it went missing."

Holly walked up to the screen and browsed some of the related articles that automatically popped up alongside it. "Looks like it already went missing."

At this, Foaly smirked. "Missing from the human world, maybe. Not from me. My computers picked up an image of the lemur on the security cameras of some rich Irish millionaire. While he probably wouldn't report our lemur missing, if it means enough to him for him to steal it, he'll probably put a lot of money into getting it back, which is just the kind of attention we don't need. Find a way to slip into that house, then slip out. No risk-taking here, Short."

He started to sign out a set of aboveground equipment. "Anyway, just hang out until he moves the lemur into an area where you can get a sample of his brain fluid."

Holly clipped her neutrino into her holster while swinging on a pair of new wings with the kind of practiced ease that would have set off a few paranoia alarms in the back of Foaly's head had he been properly paying attention. "Sounds like a vacation. I'll give you a ring once I get to Dublin." She gave the wings an experimental twitch and nodded. "Nice job with the new model."

Foaly gave her a small smile. Captain Short was a nice mix of warm and professional, and she was rapidly becoming one of his favorite officers to deal with. "Of course. Built it myself."

She returned the grin then pointed to the minimized screen at the corner of his computer that clearly had nothing to do with work. "Call you at the surface. You continue serving the People to the best of your ability" With that, she gave him a one-handed finger gun and strode out of the room.

Foaly nickered, not sure whether he was being joshed or attacked. "Heh. Heh," he said to the now shut door. He shrugged, then maximized up his virtual chess game. Whoever this Gold_Is_Power person was, they were going _down._

…

Juliet fed a berry to JayJay through the wires of the cage. "Let me get this straight. You stole this guy from the zoo? Why?"

Her brother shrugged. "I don't get paid enough to delve into that boy's brain."

Another blueberry went in. "I hate to say it, but maybe you should make sure he isn't…you..know.. _on_ something. He's acts real weird, then he steals a lemur. Doesn't scream 'all there'."

Butler shook his head. "He's not using anything," he said with certainty. "Like I said, he's just got stuff going on right now."

Juliet paused in her quest to make JayJay the fattest lemur alive. Her brother sounded a little too certain. "You ran tests, didn't you."

Butler said nothing. To tell the truth, he did want to cover all of his bases before he accepted magic, time travel, and fairies.

"Don't those tests involve blood or urine?"

Butler went right on saying nothing.

"Does he _know_ you ran those tests?"

"I did what I had to do."

Upstairs, Artemis was finally getting around to reallocating the remainder of his family's fortune into stocks he knew were about to do well. Putting his family back together was definitely a priority, but he needed to figure out a different way.

Fortunately, he'd spent years regretting his mistakes, and years to work on alternate options.

His fairy communicator lit up on his desk, momentarily relegated to the top of his desk. He allowed himself a small grin. Looks like Foaly had taken the bait.

HEADING TOWARDS THE MANOR NOW. HAVE AN INVITE READY FOR ME.

Finally, a bit of luck. There was no way to know if Holly would be the captain assigned to retrieving the lemur. In fact, the odds were against it. Yet here she was, winging towards the place where it all began.

Won't even have to worry about protecting Butler and Juliet out of the way from an over-zealous fairy, Artemis thought, pleased, basking in the glow of Lady Luck.

He cracked his bedroom window open, slid in mirrored contacts in, and waited.

….

Fowl Manor rose into view, and something in Holly's chest twisted a bit. Unchanged, a fortress against the winds of time, its stone walls stubbornly protecting its inhabitants from invaders, human and fairy alike. Looking at it now, there was no question in Holly's mind how it bred a line of noblemen, gangsters, criminals, and heroes. There was just something about it that defied the idea of normalcy. Come Hell or high Water, its towers promised, the Fowls will stand.

 _"Nice_ house," said Foaly, breaking Holly's reverie. "Fowl is beyond loaded."

Holly shook her head a little. Focus. "Did you take a look into the owner?"

"Yep. Artemis Fowl the Second runs this castle."

"What do you make of him?" asked Holly, curious.

"First off, he's ten. Hilariously young. Like, this kid can't even drive, and he's running around stealing lemurs. Second, he's a bonafide genius. I scrolled through some of his stuff while you were in the shuttle, and he's something else. The type of smart that I should probably be keeping an eye on..."

Holly pressed the RECORD button. This conversation might make a nice birthday gift for Artemis someday.

"…Psychology, Biology, Languages. If he wasn't human and a criminal, I would be begging to hire this guy for R&D."

"He's a criminal?" Holly asked, inwardly laughing. "I thought you said he was ten. What's he done, raided a candy store?"

"Ha. No, some hacking, lemur-napping, bit of robbery. It's so odd. I'd blame the dad, but it looks like he got blown up in a ship not too long ago. I checked the house's security cameras, and it looks like the Mom is out of the picture too. This lil' guy looks like he's getting raised by his butler."

"Poor kid," Holly said. _For multiple reasons,_ she thought. _Poor Artemis. At least I'm still an adult._

"Poor nothing," snorted the centaur. "This kid practically sleeps in gold."

"Money isn't everything," Holly said, landing on one of the towers. "Have a way in for me?"

The sound of computer keys getting tapped came over the headset. "There's a window open on the north side. Looks like a bedroom."

She jumped off the balcony, then glided over, knowing where she was going to land before she saw it. No doubt Artemis had decided to open his own window, sparing her the risk of running into either of the Butler's.

His bedroom, once she crawled in, was heartbreaking. It was devoid of the personal touches that _her_ Artemis had added-paintings, books cracked with use, scattered patents for Fowl Industries, photos of Beckett and Myles. This one was cold and simply looked like an opulent hotel room. Most everything looked like it had been ordered for a short adult's office.

Even the centaur was taken aback. "D'arvit, is this where they keep the family robot?"

A shifting in the chair shut both of them up. Holly crept forward, shield still up, then realized that Artemis was passed out in the chair, or he was giving an award-winning performance.

Holly looked at Foaly through her helmet. "I'm going to mesmerize him. This is a big house, and I don't want any surprises."

Foaly frowned, but before he could object, Holly repeated the list of reasons Artemis had fed her while they were hashing the plan out on their private communicators. "I can nail him before he alerts anyone, and it might be nice to know if there are any security surprises hidden around the manor. You said it yourself-he's a smart criminal, and he might be expecting trouble."

Without waiting for permission, Holly gave the Irish genius a small shake, and the second he drowsily cracked open his eyes, she hit him with the full-force of the Mesmer.

 _"What's your name?"_ she asked, feeling foolish.

Artemis paused, pretending to resist. "Not…not supposed to talk to strangers."

 _"I'm not a stranger. I'm a friend. Tell me, how do you feel about telling friends secrets?"_

Artemis's body relaxed. The stress melted from his face and he collapsed into his office chair a little. Had she not been a professional, she might have laughed after seeing that Artemis's legs were no longer long enough to hit the ground. He looked like the little kid that he never was. "Depends what kind of secret."

 _"Secrets about the lemur would be a nice start."_

"Ah yes. JayJay. You aren't going to tell anyone about him, are you? Because his life depends on it."

"What?" sputtered Foaly.

Holly ignored the centaur. " _Why does his life depend on it? Don't worry, this stays between you and me."_

"Well, alright then. As long as this stays between us. A rather repulsive man named Kronski has been asking around about the lemur for a while. Says he would like to own it. Between you and me, I know all he's going to do is kill Jayjay-he runs this group named the Extinctionists, you see. Thought I'd beat whomever he hired to the chase and bring him back to the manor."

"That's a new one," grumbled Foaly, as he tapped away at his keyboard, no doubt looking at Kronski.

 _"Anything else?"_ pressed Holly. Get to the point, she thought. Drop the zinger.

"I looked farther into it, if that's what you're asking," said Artemis, his vibrant blue eyes vacant. "Thought it was a bit odd that Kronski was so set on having this lemur, when there are rare animals that are much easier to acquire."

Foaly's fingers stopped tapping.

"Turns out, he's been storing all the animal's he's pretended to have executed over the past decade or so in an underground laboratory. I planted a few bugs and overheard the head scientist's name. In fact, I was planning on looking into her tonight."

Craft a better story, Holly thought crossly. " _What was her name?"_

"Koboi," the bespelled boy said, almost cheerfully. "Opal Koboi."

The rest of the visit didn't last long. After letting out a string of curse words that he must have picked up from the Recon jocks, Foaly muttered something about needing to make some calls and ran out of the lab to find Root. Holly had shrugged, taken a sample of JayJay's brain fluid, then taken off, reasoning that it was up to the Commander to take action.

She was kind of expecting Haven to be in chaos upon her return, but everything was operating the same. Nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing to suggest that a pillar of the community was about to become public enemy number one.

It took signing her equipment in to get an answer. The centaur pulled her aside with a complete lack of snarky remarks into the Commander's office, where the footage from her helmet was playing on loop.

A spiral of fungus smoke came from his cigar before he moved. It was clear that he'd been watching the video for a while.

Holly stood at attention, not sure what to do.

Foaly used one of his hind legs to kick the door shut. "What are your orders Commander?"

Root smashed his cigar into his desk. "Right now, my orders are to keep this quiet. Everyone who knows about this is in this office. If either of you spill, I'll know who to start with."

The elf leaned back in his chair, eyes hard. "We will get her, but it will take time," he said, unknowing echoing Foaly's words from four years in the future. "Someone like Koboi doesn't go down easy. We have to build a case, and it has to be airtight. No screw ups, no missteps."

He paused, mostly for effect. "This is going to get complicated, quick. Can you two do complicated?"

They both nodded. No hesitation.

"Good. Also, cancel your social plans for the next year or so. You'll be putting in a lot of overtime."

…..

 **Sorry for the complete lack of updates. I am still looking for a place to live, my LSAT is in two weeks, I'm having issues with my graduation requirements, and kind of suck reading GC/MS data. RIP. Thanks to everyone who had reviewed-it feels like a little hug.**


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